Lovers Meet
by DarkShine07
Summary: So we've been told time after time that Balto's father had pups with a wolf. Never even heard anything more than that though. Here's a story about how the pair met. [Oneshot]


**A/N: First Balto FanFic, no flames, only constructive criticism. I know that Balto's mother's name is Ana**ï**yu, but I'm not sure if I spelt it correctly. Oh well. XD**

"Where am I?" The dog sat down in the snow, cold wind blowing over his back, sending chills down his spine and making the rest of his body tingle. The dog looked around, very confused and losing hope. It had been hours since he'd seen Daju or any of the other dogs from his team. They had been going on an average everyday sled trip only about five or six miles long when a broken log obscured their path. Their human simply steered them around it, but the log was much longer than he had expected, and it was quite a while before they even made it to the end of the log, and by then a steady snow had started. Everyone had lost track of where they were, even Manja himself had lost sense of direction as the snow covered up any familiar scents.

So as the snow progressed to fall faster and more heavily the dogs gave up working together and began arguing about which way to go and if they should go at all. They had elected to Manja to go on ahead and see if he recognized anything, but as he had gone on farther and farther, desperately trying to find some trace of anything comforting, he had wandered too far from his team, and now he couldn't even remember which direction he had come from to get to where he was sitting that very moment.

He knew better than to bark into the strong wind, for that would only give away that he was isolated and weakened for not knowing a thing about his surroundings, but he wanted to bark anyways. He felt completely along as he stared straight ahead of himself and all he could see was white. Every direction was filled with whiteness, pristine white that he could barely see through. The wind became stronger and the snow fell down in thicker clumps, patching up on his dark drown fur. His body suddenly seemed heavier, and a lot colder, and he slowly sunk down onto his belly, letting the snow cover his body from the top of the head to the tip of his tail. He tried, he really did, to keep his eyelids from shutting, but he was so cold and exhausted that they eventually drooped down involuntarily.

-/-/-

"Have you seen enough?" The white wolf calmly asked.

Navu looked out at the brown husky laying in the snow and slowly nodded, "Fine. Permission granted."

Anaïyu dipped her head respectfully and padded out of the shelter and past the cool pool of water surrounded by whiteness. Finally she walked right into the white mist and it swirled around her own white coat, causing her to seem invisible in her environment. She made her way towards the brown mass of fur being smothered in snow. She and Navu, the leader of her clan, had been following him for quite some time, and had quickly realized how lost and defenseless he was.

She prodded his sod with her white paw. The dog slightly moved, probably in pain from the coldness overtaking his lungs Anaïyu decided. She poked him harder the next time and was awarded to see his head slowly rise. Two bright yellow eyes blinked at her and suddenly widened. Anaïyu was certain that if it wasn't so cold and he wasn't so exhausted he would have jumped up and run upon seeing her. Instead he just blinked a few times and titled his head.

"Are you…a wolf?" He asked in a raspy voice.

Anaïyu smiled, "Yes. Now be quiet. You need to save your voice and reserve your strength. Come on then…get up."

He stared at her as if she was crazy, "We're in the middle of a white fog. You want me to get up _why_?" His voice started to return to how Anaïyu thought it would normally sound.

"Just trust me and come on."

Manja paused, he had always been taught not to trust a wolf. But after he watched her turn and start back into the fog he effortly heaved his aching, stiff body up and mechanically followed after her. To his surprise the wolf seemed to know where she was going as they padded through the whiteness. If he had the glowing whiteness of her coat he was sure he would mistake his paws to be disappeared more than once.

A pool of water appeared before him and he eagerly lowered his head to take a drink. The coldness of the water drained down his throat and made him feel like he was freezing into an ice cube. The wolf grinned, "There's warmer water inside." Before Manja could ask what 'inside' was or where it was the wolf had disappeared beyond the pool. He eagerly followed after her, not willing to be left alone in the whiteness again so soon, and trod past the pool.

To his dismay the whiteness suddenly vanished to reveal the interior of a cave. A wave of warmth rushed to meet his cold fur and made him feel rejuvenated. The wolf appeared right beside him, her white fur slightly brushing his own as she passed. Now that he felt warm and safe again he felt his more characteristic personality returning.

"So, what's your name anyways?" He asked the white wolf.

She turned her head, "Anaïyu. Yours?"

"Manja." He replied.

She smiled. Manja liked her smile; it was a welcoming, sincere smile, not a smirk-ish grin that implied amusement at his ignorance or such.

Anaïyu heard paw steps and a minute later Navu's head appeared from the darkness of the tunnel.

"Anaïyu, how's our guest doing?"

Manja shivered. Another wolf…he hadn't expected to see more wolves than just the white one.

"He's alright. He could use a good resting up nevertheless."

Navu nodded, "Right this way…"

"Manja."

"Right, Manja. I'm Navu, the clan leader." Manja stifled another shiver; a whole _clan _of wolves. He followed after Navu into the tunnel.

-/-/-

When Manja awakened he hurriedly made his way to the mouth of the cave, expecting to see Anaïyu, but she wasn't there. A cold draft blew into the cave, and on it Manja could just pick out her scent, which made him happy. Although hesitant to walk back into the cold, Manja stepped out of the cave onto the snowy ground. To his liking the white fog had cleared up quite a bit and he could make out the white shape of Anaïyu lying on her belly by the pool. He continued over to her and cleared his throat. "I wanted to thank you for…finding me out in the snow."

"You're quite interesting to stalk." She replied with a grin, the type of grin that seemed amused.

Manja was a little taken aback, yet not surprised. _Never trust a wolf…_ "You were following me?"

Anaïyu nodded, her grin still showing.

Manja decided to let the subject drop; it didn't really matter anyhow. He let himself lie down beside Anaïyu and yawned a doggy yawn. It was strange how he felt like he had known the wolf his whole life. He hadn't even known her a day in reality. But it seemed that there was some unspoken connection between the two. Anaïyu had sensed it when she had first prodded Manja's sleeping body in the snow, while Manja had figured it out while following the white wolf through the fog.

"I'll be your escort when we take you back to your clan." Anaïyu said softly.

Manja realized that she considered his sled team his 'clan'. "That's nice to know." He replied.

"We're leaving in a little while." She added.

Manja's heart skipped a beat. "Just a little while?"

Anaïyu nodded confirmation.

"I…don't want to leave so soon." He said quietly.

Anaïyu turned her white head to Manja, blue eyes shimmering. "It's your duty to return. They're your family."

_Hardly…_Manja thought. Most of the time he was considered the leader of the runs or the loner. He only mattered when he wore a harness, and that only happened once a day for twenty minutes, and he still was never even spoken to unless he had to go do some really important hard mission, like looking ahead earlier when he got lost.

"They won't miss me. I'm not that important."

Anaïyu slowly shook her head, "No matter what, they treated you like their leader, and that gives you're a responsibility."

Sadly Manja realized she was right, and he was wrong. He disliked being wrong greatly. Normally he'd continue to argue his false point, but the wolf's wisdom stopped him. Or maybe it was the soft look in her blue eyes as they gazed upon him.

"Well…I still want to stay longer." Manja finally let his gaze drift to meet Anaïyu's.

The white wolf slowly felt herself softening. She wasn't completely ready for Manja to leave so soon either, but she didn't want to keep him from his clan. The way he kept insisting on staying seemed to be working a charm on her mind at the minute though.

"Alright…" She started. Manja's attention was immediately captured. Anaïyu smiled and continued, "You can stay a while longer."

**Disclaimer: I won nothing except the names: Manja, Navu, and Daju, though I don't really care if someone uses them.**

**Thank you for reading, now please review!**


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